RIC Query - Cameroon (20 December 2002) Page 1 of 9 Cameroon Response to CMR03002.MEM Information Request Number: Date: December 20, 2002 Subject: Cameroon: Information on Ambazonia, Cameroon Democratic Party, Social Democratic Front (SDF), and Anti- Gang [Brigade] From: INS Resource Information Center Keywords: Cameroon / Anglophone / Arbitrary arrest / Detained persons / Francophone / Freedom of political opinion / Linguistic minorities / Nationalism / Political participation / Political violence / Secession / Separatism Query: Please provide information on the following Cameroonian organizations: Ambazonia, Cameroon Democratic Party, Social Democratic Front, and Anti-Gang [Brigade], such as information about the formation, purpose, membership, composition, current status and activities, and current relationship to the ruling party in Cameroon of each organization. Also, please indicate if there is any information that any of these organizations were implicated in the persecution of others during the period of 1989-1992. Response: AMBAZONIA Ambazonia is the name of a Cameroonian organization that seeks independence for Southern Cameroons, i.e., the Anglophone North West [Nord-Ouest] and South West [Sud-Ouest] provinces of the Republic of Cameroon that were known under colonial rule as British Southern Cameroons. It is also the name used by some militant elements of the Anglophone movement in Cameroon for a new nation that would result from the dissolution of the 1961 union of the Southern Cameroons with the Republic of Cameroon and the http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/asylum/ric/documentation/CMR03002.htm 8/15/05 RIC Query - Cameroon (20 December 2002) Page 2 of 9 creation of a new independent state—Ambazonia (Krieger 1994, 617; Southern Cameroons Provisional Administration 2002). According to Cameroon specialist Milton Krieger, the Cameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM) that gathered 5,000 people at the city of Buea in Cameroon in April 1993 for the first All-Anglophone Conference, included moderates who sought a return to the federal structure that had operated between 1961 and 1972, and militants who sought secession and an independent state of Ambazonia (Krieger 1994, 616-617). The more mainstream Social Democratic Front (SDF), led by John Fru Ndi, distanced itself from the CAM and sought decentralization and devolution of powers to the regions rather than independence for the Anglophone provinces (POLITICAL HANDBOOK OF THE WORLD 1999, 159; Krieger 1994, 616-617). The website of a group called the Southern Cameroons Provisional Administration, which states its goal is “to gain control of the colonized territory of the Southern Cameroons,” provides information on the goals, objectives, strategies, and grievances of those seeking independence for the Anglophone provinces of Cameroon (Southern Cameroons Provisional Administration 2002). Regarding the name Ambazonia, they note: “The word Ambazonia comes from the two words ‘Ambas’ (the coastal peoples of Southern Cameroons) and ‘Zone’. The word was reportedly coined by the late Professor Bernard Fonlon as an alternative appellation to the Southern Cameroons to avoid confusion with the South Province of La Republique du Cameroun. This appellation was later adopted by one of the groups that has consistently demanded the independence of the Southern Cameroons from as far back as 1985. The Ambazonia group was initially reluctant to come under the SCPC [Southern Cameroons Peoples Conference] (formerly AAC—[All-Anglophone Conference]) umbrella, when the SCPC agenda still pushed for a return to the 1961 federal structure. Ambazonia is currently under the SCPC umbrella and strongly supports the push for Southern Cameroons independence” (Southern Cameroons Provisional Administration 2002). According to the Southern Cameroons Provisional Administration, the “Southern Cameroons Peoples Conference (SCPC) is the umbrella organization for all groups fighting for Southern Cameroons independence… The strongest of the groups within the SCPC umbrella are CAM [Cameroon Anglophone Movement], Ambazonia, the Southern Cameroons Youth League [SCYL], and the Free West Cameroon Movement” (Southern Cameroons Provisional Administration 2002). In response to a question whether the SCPC was buying weapons to engage in armed struggle for independence for Southern Cameroons, the website states: “We have never advocated violence” (Southern Cameroons Provisional Administration 2002). The statement acknowledges, “there are some who see Southern Cameroons independence as ours by right and… [who] prefer that we take up arms… and then declare our independence. Unfortunately the SCPC does not believe this is the right approach, and fortunately for us, the Southern Cameroonians in favor of the violent approach are in the minority” (Southern Cameroons Provisional http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/asylum/ric/documentation/CMR03002.htm 8/15/05 RIC Query - Cameroon (20 December 2002) Page 3 of 9 Administration 2002). According to the Southern Cameroons Provisional Administration, “On December 30, 1999, the country declared its independence from La Republique du Cameroun and is currently working to establish effective control over its territories. The ruling authority in the country is the British Southern Cameroons Provisional Administration, created in Washington, DC on June 17, 2001, from a coalition of various liberation movements including the SCNC [Southern Cameroon National Council], SCARM [Southern Cameroons Restoration Movement] and Ambazonia” (Southern Cameroons Provisional Administration 2002). CAMEROON DEMOCRATIC PARTY There does not appear to be a party called Cameroon Democratic Party, though there is a Cameroonian Party of Democrats (Parti des Democrates Camerounais, PDC), as well as more than twenty parties with some version of “democrat” or “democracy” in their name. “The PDC is Cameroon’s member of the Christian Democratic International [a global network of Christian Democratic parties]. One of its leaders, Louis Tobie Mbida, was instrumental in launching an antigovernment coalition, the National Convention of the Cameroonian Opposition (Convention Nationale de l’Opposition Camerounaise—CNOC), in early 1992” (POLITICAL HANDBOOK OF THE WORLD 1999, 160). PDC leaders include Adalbert Atangana Mbarga (President), Louis-Tobie Mbida, and Gaston Bikele Ekami (Secretary General) (POLITICAL HANDBOOK OF THE WORLD 1999, 160). ANTI-GANG [BRIGADE] In its 2000 annual report, Amnesty International highlighted significant human rights abuses committed by an anti-gang brigade that appears to have been formed in 1998 to combat armed robberies in northern Cameroon: “Extrajudicial executions of criminal suspects in North [Nord], Far-North [Extreme-Nord] and Adamawa [Adamaoua] Provinces continued during operations to combat armed robbery by a joint unit of the army and gendarmerie (the paramilitary police), known as the brigade anti-gang. Since March 1998, when the unit was deployed, some 700 people were reported to have been extrajudicially executed. In late April or early May 1999, 15 people were reported to have been extrajudicially executed by the brigade anti-gang on the road to Kossa, north of Maroua, Far-North [Extreme-Nord] Province, and their bodies abandoned by the roadside. While killings were reported to have continued throughout 1999, the practice of abandoning unburied bodies decreased and it became more difficult to establish the numbers killed. The fate of Alioum Aminou, a photographer who had distributed photographs of victims of extrajudicial executions, remained unknown. He had been arrested by the brigade anti-gang in October 1998 in Maroua” (AI 2000). http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/asylum/ric/documentation/CMR03002.htm 8/15/05 RIC Query - Cameroon (20 December 2002) Page 4 of 9 “Members of a non-governmental organization, the Mouvement pour la défense des droits de l'homme et des libertés (MDDHL), Movement for the Defence of Human Rights and Liberties, were repeatedly threatened because of their exposure of extrajudicial executions by the brigade anti-gang ”(AI 2000). The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, who visited Cameroon in May 1999, reported on the activities of the anti-gang brigade in Maroua: “Before his mission...and when in Maroua, the Special Rapporteur received information about a special anti-gang unit led by a Colonel Pom which is responsible for combating the armed highway robbers who attack, rob and kill travelers in the north of the country. The anti-gang unit is apparently arbitrarily detaining, torturing and summarily executing people suspected of being highway robbers or of having information about highway robbers… In certain cases, there also seem to be a settling of personal scores and false denunciations; according to the information, the anti-gang units show little concern for investigations and lack of evidence. The special unit was reportedly sent to the Nord [North] and Extrême- Nord [Far-North] provinces in March 1998, composed of some 40 members of the army and the gendarmerie, dressed in civilian clothing and heavily armed; it is active in the three northernmost provinces. The unit allegedly acts outside the law and with total impunity. Moreover, there appears to be a climate of fear in the region, which explains the fact that relatives of victims do not dare complain for fear of reprisals. The regional governor and the military commander of the Extrême-Nord [Far-North] region have reportedly stated on several occasions that they have no authority over Colonel